Through the looking glass

Lahiru Sanjeeva FERNANDO

3D movies have the effect of reaching out to you from the screen   Watching movies using glasses

Multitouch screens. iPads. 3D movies. Everywhere you look there is demand for more experience in engaging in the content. This demand has resulted in delivering a similar experience to its consumers.

Have you watched a 3D movie? One minute you find yourself flying next to birds and catching a bird’s eye view of the land below and the next instance you are either diving in the deep sea, amid underwater marine life, or gliding among the stars in space. Renowned movies like Avatar, How To Train Your Dragon, Journey To The Centre of the Earth, Beowuf, Toy Story 3 and Ice Age 3 have never ceased to mesmerise its viewers with its three dimensional effects. The experience seems to be so much of a reality that we almost believe that we are sucked into the screen and living among the characters of the tale.

It is hard to imagine how a simple screen and a set of glasses helps you to share such a wondrous experience but that is only the outer layer of this fabulous discovery. Many are curious about how the magic unfolds before us. The answer is both reassuringly simple and inordinately complex, depending on who you ask and how you look at it. Here is a glimpse at the secret behind this successful formula.

3D movies began their development stages from 1915 but could not reach quality standards until 2009. William Friese-Greene experimented with this technique from the 1980s. According to his discoveries the movie needs to be projected to the screen in two sides and the audience should view the film through the stereoscope. Though you are able to view 3D images, this method was not practical enough to be introduced to film theatres. Some effective technological discoveries connected with 3D cinema emerged in recent times.

Eye impression of the three dimensional

This is a small trick that you can perform to understand the technology better. Hold your pen still in front of your face. Close your right eye and look at the pen. Now close your left eye and look at the pen. Switch the perspective and scrutinized the view which you saw with each of your eyes. You will see the same object in the same position but it is slightly off set. You will soon realize that each eye sees different parts of something that we are able to see.

The two images of the same object enter the brain. The brain possesses a high genetic power to make up the disparity of these two images. It can easily identify all the angles and figure out the disparity between the two images. It has the capacity to sync the images through matching and measuring the object. Unfortunately camera cannot perform the same actions without destroying the image even if it is captured in two different perspectives.

How 3D movies are created

The 3D movies are created by two angles viewing the same scene from two separate cameras positioned left and right. These are set in this manner to simulate the distance between audience’s eyes.

Then the result is projected through a special system to the silver screen. The audience need to wear special filter glasses (Rotational Polarized Glasses) to experience the impact.

The brain fuses these images together giving a view of a strong illusion of depth in and out of the screen. The Rotational Polarized glasses which are worn by the audience allow the image to be separated as a left and right view.

3D glasses

Anaglyph glasses were used earlier to witness the 3D effects of a movie. One glass is red and the other glass is blue in these particular glasses. The movie too needs to be projected in those tones for the viewers to witness the results.

This method was not effective for full range of colour products and led to many problems such as unclear and mixed up images. Later Polarized Glasses made their entrance to theatres and proved to be much more sufficient than anaglyph glasses.

According to this method a film can be projected in two different angles. One in a horizontal manner and the other in a vertical manner. The relevant glass allows the eye to be horizontally polarized while being vertically polarized in the other eye.

A drawback of this system is that you need to keep your head still to see the 3D effect. If you shake your head the waves become distorted while reaching to your eyes. It messes the colour and does not give a clear 3D image.

The most effective way to view a 3D film these days is by using Rotational Polarized Glasses.

These equipments have the capability of polarizing the two different images rotationally in clock wise for one eye and counter clockwise for the other eye. Now you can tilt your head as you wish and see the 3D images without any problem.

The Future of 3D

The revolution of the 3D technology has emerged. It has developed the mechanism to project two different images of the same scene captured by cameras with the relevant disparity to the left and right eye to make it 3D efficient.

This is only the beginning. The day that we will be able to watch a 3D movie without wearing glasses if not far away.